The Celeste Project: Celeste is a collaboration between MIT, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Julia Computing, Intel, and NERSC (the DoE's supercomputing center). They recently managed to calculate the first comprehensive statistical catalog of astronomical objects in the visible universe. That's over 188 million stars and galaxies!

Using some nifty new methods they developed, the collaboration managed to complete the entire calculation in only 15 minutes. We believe this system will massively accelerate astronomy research, especially once scientists start receiving higher-resolution images from new telescopes like the LSST and the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA looking over commercial Earth Science data, NASA Administrator hopeful Jim Bridenstine begins to feel some pressure, and 'what spacecraft?' says US Government. 2018 might not be a return to normalcy, but your favorite podcast returns to our usual format. Be sure to check out next week's episode with special guests: The Celeste Project. And be sure to grab your official Ad Astra t-shirt.

Going to space isn't easy. Neither are the politics that go into it. Jack and Newton break down the missions to space and beyond in terms anyone can understand in this weekly show about space and space policy and technology.